In 1974, a Harvard sociologist made a seemingly unremarkable discovery. It is, in fact, who you know. His study asked several hundred white-collar workers how they’d landed their jobs. More than half credited a “personal connection.” Duh. But then it got interesting: The researcher, Mark Granovetter, dug deeper and discovered that four-fifths of these backdoor hires barely knew their benefactors. As it turns out, close friends are great for road trips, intimate dinners, and the occasional interest-free loan, but they suck for job leads and blind dates – they know the same people you do. In other words, it’s not so much who you know, but who you vaguely know. Granovetter called the phenomenon “the strength of weak ties.” He had discovered the human node.

I reckon uni is a microcosm for social networks. As for human hypernodes in uni… you know the people I’m talking about.

I haven’t read the article but I’d guess it means those people at uni who know everyone (they’re damn annoying to walk with because they stop every 5 metres to talk to another acquaintance) and end up inviting 300 odd people to their 21sts.

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